Was lucky enough to come across a gent selling a new production Ithaca 37 in the now discontinued 16g. He had custom ordered the gun with a plain polished receiver (no bird scene engraving), upgraded AA wood, 28” vented rib bbl with white bead, and an extra 20” plain cylinder bore bbl. Its mint, with owner claiming less than a box of shells through it, and has all orig box and acc. It may be on the heavy side in the purists opinion, but this gun has pheasants and clays written all over it for me! Pick it up tomorrow, can’t wait!

Picked 'er up, my initial impressions are very positive, its a very solid feeling gun, and looks to be really well made. Seems to fit me well and comes up nice, but I'll know more in a few weeks when I get out to shoot it. I've been wanting one of these new Ithaca's for a while (been itching to order a 28g) so when this 16g popped up for sale I couldn't pass it up. I think the plain receiver the orig owner spec'd really suits this gun.

I believe for deer maybe? He offered me slugs for sale as well. But with the cylinder bore it'll serve well if I ever hunt really thick bird cover. The barrel has UPL28 stamped on it, so seems it started out as a 28" plain barrel that he had chopped down and then added a brass bead. Looks well done though. The only thing I'd like to change is add a butt plate to the stock instead of the pad. I just like the look better, plus I can already tell in the cold weather that pad is going to get hung up on my thicker coat. Losing a 1/2" or so in length plus the non grippy plate will make mounting much faster and easier. Very impressed with this gun.

You have to be careful with some of those buttplates. The patterns were taken from old originals, and those old originals shrank. I have put numerous buttplates on the 16ga 37's that I restored over the last few years and have had good results with the ones that came out of the King Ferry plant such as these

If you find the ones that still have the casting flash on the ends those are best. I have yet to acquire one that is too small.

BUT I do have a bunch of the old ones that shrank. Something in the material they were made of was the reason for shrinking.

Some of the extra weight in that Ohio made gun is because it is built on a 3" frame. All Ohio made Ithacas use that 3" frame. I couldn't comfortably hold the gun and rack the slide. That is what caused me to get into the older 2 3/4" frame size Ithaca 37 16's.

_________________dr = David R, not Dr. but thanks for the compliment, most folks just call me Dave